Spring is in the air

I think that this is my first ever blip of a swan! The dutiful cob was putting the final touches to the nest in which the pen will lay their eggs.    
 
In my favourite cookery book, GOOD THINGS IN ENGLAND, a collection of recipes contributed by English men and women between 1399 and 1932. there is an entry that shows just how much how our attitudes to eating wild birds have changed in very recent times.

Under the heading How to Cook a young Swan there was an advertisment from the Personal columns of The Times, dated November 14th, 1931.

'Cygnets (young swans) supplied dressed for dinner and banquets - Master, Great Hospital, Norwich.'

The recipe involved procuring a Norwich-fed cygnet, preferably in September and stuffing it with a mixture of rump steak, shallots, nutmeg, pepper and salt, before roasting for 4 hours.